Overhead garage door assemblies



Feb 9, 1960 w. s. BECK OVERHEAD GARAGE DOOR ASSEMBLIES Filed Sept. 23. 1957 I 5 ATTORNEY United States. Patent O OVERHEAD GARAGE DOOR ASSEMBLIES William S. Beck, Mawer, Saskatchewan, Canada Application September 23, 1957, Serial No. 685,744

1 Claim. (CI. 20-16) My invention relates to new and useful improvements in overhead garage doors, particularly a plurality of such doors in side by side relationship, the principal object and essence of my invention being to provide a device of the character herewithin described which permits the said plurality of doors to be placed side by side without uprights between them for the attaching hardware.

Specifically, the invention consists of a plurality of doors roller mounted by the upper edge thereof for horizontal travel in a pair of parallel inwardly extending tracks and having radius arms extending between substantially the centre of the door sides and the overhead beam of the door opening and having cables attached substantially adjacent the lower corners of the door and extending vertically upwardly and over pulleys to a counterweight system.

Another object of my invention is to provide a device of the character herewithin described in which any single door can be operated individually for the passage of a single vehicle.

Alternatively, all doors can be opened at one time allowing free movement of a large machine or aircraft.

Yet another object of my invention is to provide a device of the character herewithin described in which the radius arms are adjustable to permit the same hardware to be used on a wide range of door sizes.

Yet another object of my invention is to provide a device of the character herewithin described in which the hardware can be situated internally if just a single door is constructed.

Still another object of my invention is to provide a device of the character herewithin described in which the radius arms do not carry the weight of the door, but are designed primarily for controlling the door movement.

Yet further object of my invention is to provide a device of the character herewithin described in which the hardware is extremely simple in construction, economical in manufacture, and otherwise well suited to the purpose for which it is designed.

With the foregoing objects in view, and such other objects and advantages as will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention relates as this specification proceeds, my invention consists essentially in the arrangement and construction of parts all as hereinafter more particularly described, reference being had to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure l is a perspective view of a plurality of doors shown installed.

Figure 2 is a fragmentary section of one of the doors.

Figure 3 is an enlarged fragmentary front elevation of the upper corner of one of the door installations.

Figure 4 is a fragmentary side elevation on a reduced scale showing the hardware used for a single door in which the hardware is interiorly mounted.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary side elevation showing an alternative pulley arrangement.

Figure 6 is a fragmentary top plan view of the pulley installation shown in Figure 5.

PatentedFeh- Q, 19.60

In the drawings like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the different figures.

Proceeding now to describe my invention in detail, reference should be made first to Figures 1 and 2 in which I have illustrated a garage or storage building 1 including an open front 2 and an overhead beam 3 defining the upper edge of the open front 2. In this embodiment, three of my doors collectively designated 4 are illustrated, but it will be appreciated that any number of such doors can be installed side by side thus closing the entire opening and permitting individual doors to be opened as desired.

Each door consists of a substantially rectangular planar panel 5 and adjacent the upper edge 6 of the panel'l secure a pair of bearer brackets 7 by means of bolts 8. These bearer brackets support pivotally a bearer arm 9 by means of pin 10 which in turn supports a pulley arrangement collectively designated 11.

A pair of overhead tracks 12 extend from inside the main beam 3, rearwardly to a supporting bracket 13, said tracks being in spaced and parallel relationship as illustrated. The cross-sectional configuration of these tracks is best shown in Figure 3 and the aforementioned bearer arm 9 is adapted to pass upwardly between the lower flanges 14 upon the inner surfaces of which the aforementioned roller means, engages. The roller means 1 1 consist of a pair of rollers 15 journalled for rotation upon spindle 16 which is supported by the upper end of bearer arm 9 and in order to prevent rocking action of this bearer arm which would affect the part traversed by the door during opening and closing thereof, I provide a rearwardly extending arm 17 rigidly secured to the upper end of the bearer arm 9, said arm 17 also carrying a further pair of rollers 15 upon a spindle 16. This makes a fourrollered trolley or carrier and because the diameter of the rollers is substantially equal to the height of the track 12, bearer arm 9 is maintained in the vertical position at all times.

The lower end 18 of the door panel 5 is supported by means of a pair of cables 19 and anchored in eyes 20 adjacent the lower corners of the door. These cables extend vertically upwardly and pass through apertures 21 drilled in the upper beam 3 and then pass over sheaves or pulleys 22 to a counter-balance system indicated generally by the reference character 23. In Figure 1, all of the cables 19 are routed to one end of the beam 3 and each set of cables is provided with its own counter-weight assembly 23.

However, Figure 2 shows an alternative counter-weight arrangement in phantom identified by the reference character 24 and in this connection the two cables 19, after passing over a pulley system, may be joined together in a common cable and then led to a common counter-weight system. Under these circumstances, it is desirable to utilize the construction illustrated in Figures 5 and 6 in which the cable 19 passes through the drilling 21 in the overhead beam 3 and is then routed over a castor wheel 24 mounted upon the upper surface of the beam 3, the two cables 19 joining at a common union at 25 from whence the single cable 26 may extend over a rear pulley 27'. The casting action is necessary because the junction 25 moves rearwardly and forwardly with the action of opening and closing the door thus changing the angle between the cables 19 as they pass over the castors.

.In order to control the movement of the door during the opening and closing action I provide radius arms collectively designated 27. In the embodiment shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3, these radius arms are provided with a telescopic joint 28 to enable the length thereof to be adjusted during installation so that the same hardware can be used for varying size doors and also to permit the amount of opening of the doors to be controlled. The lower ends 29 of the radius arms are angulated at right angles thus forming a bearing portion 30 which is pivotally connected to the outer surface 31 of the door by means of bearings 32. It will be observed that these bearings are substantially midway along the side edges 33 of the doors to give optimum control;

The upper ends 34 of the radius arms are also angulated at right angles and are pivotally supported within pivot bracket 35 secured to the outer face 36 of the overhead beam 3 as clearly shown in the accompanying drawings.

In operation, the door is actuated by means of hand grip 36 adjacent the lower edge thereof. The lower edge of the door is pulled outwardly and upwardly thus initiating movement of the upper edge of the door along the tracks 12. At the same time the counter-weight system 23 facilitates the lifting action of the lower portion of the door until the door is fully opened and lying in a substantially horizontal plane inboard of the beam 3 with thehardware, etc., protected from the weather. In closing the door, the lower edge is pulled downwardly thus reversing the action until the door assumes the vertical position. In both operations, of course, the radius arms 27 control and the counter-weight system 23 facilitates the travel of the door.

With the embodiments illustrated and described herein, a plurality of doors can be mounted in side by side relationship and due to the positioning of the radius arms inboard of the side edges 33, these side edges of adjacent doors can be in substantially interfacial relationship thus eliminating the necessity of vertical posts which cut down the overall opening that can be obtained at any one time.

If, however, the device is desired to be used on a single opening, then the radius rods 27 can be mounted by their upper ends upon the inner face of the overhead beam 3 and by the lower ends thereof upon the inner surface of the door panels 5 as illustrated in Figure 4. This permits all of the hardware to be contained within the garage and under these circumstances, of course, the side edges 33 are adapted to butt against door jams when in the closed position, in the conventional manner.

Since various modifications can be made in my invention as hereinabove described, and many apparently widely different embodiments of same made within the spirit and scope of the claim without departing from such spirit and scope, it is intended that all matter contained in the accompanying specification shall be interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense.

What I claim as my invention is:

The combination of a doorway having a transverse beam at the top' thereof, and an overhead door assembly comprising a pair of spaced parallel tracks secured at one end thereof to and extending horizontally from said beam at right angles thereto, each of said tracks being of a boxshaped cross section and provided at the underside thereof with a longitudinally extending slot, a pair of roller carriages movable longitudinally in the respective tracks, said carriages including depending strap members slidable in and projecting downwardly through the slots of said tracks, a door panel pivotally attached at its upper edge to the depending strap members of said carriages, a pair of transversely spaced radius arms pivoted at one end thereof to said beam and pivoted at their other end to said door panel at points substantially midway between the upper and lower edges of the latter, said beam being provided at transversely spaced points with a pair of vertical bores, a pair of cables passing slidably through said bores and having lower ends connected to said door panel at points adjacent the lower edge thereof, a pair of horizontally swingable guide pulleys mounted on said beam adjacent said bores and having said cables passing thereover, stretches of said cables passing over said guide pulleys being horizontal and mutually convergent to a common junction point, a single cable connected at one end thereof to said first mentioned cables at said common junction point, a single guide pulley provided at the end of one of said tracks remote from said beam and having said single cable passing downwardly thereover, and a counterweight for said door panel attached to the lower end of said single cable, the horizontal swinging movement of said pair of guide pulleys compensating for varying angular relationship between said convergent stretches of said pair of cables when the common junction point of the cables moves toward and away from said beam during closing and opening of the door.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,023,193 Byrne Dec. 3, 1935 2,071,161 Cornell et al Feb. 16, 1937 2,151,845 Goodrich Mar. 28, 1939 2,203,856 Beason June 11, 1940 2,533,423 Bunch Dec. 12, 1950 

